


Vacana

by avani



Category: Mahabharata - Vyasa
Genre: Gen, Implied Relationships, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-17
Updated: 2020-03-17
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:00:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23245162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/avani/pseuds/avani
Summary: Shortly after the disastrousrangabhumiceremony, Karna and Gandhari meet.(It's not an interrogation. Karna might prefer if it were so.)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 11
Collections: Rangabhumi Round Two: An Indian Mythology and Lore Fanfic Exchange





	Vacana

**Author's Note:**

  * For [toujours_nigel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/toujours_nigel/gifts).



The maidservant who allows him into Queen Gandhari’s receiving room has a face like stone, and Karna’s heart sinks. He had hoped, after all, for some hint of why he is summoned before the royal presence after years of polite indifference, but that hardly seems forthcoming. He will face his dearest friend’s mother unprepared, unarmed.

Within, the Queen is sitting at her prayers, and Karna waits awkwardly for her to finish them. Should he leave? No, that would be impolite and offend the gods besides. Ought he to hunker down beside her and bow his head? Arrogant, that, assuming the place of a beloved son for himself. He settles for flattening himself by the door, wishing he had the Antardhana-astra at hand. If only he _could_ make himself disappear; if only it were at all appropriate to use a weapon in the inner quarters of the royal palace.

The Queen rises silently, and despite himself Karna jumps. He comforts himself that surely she cannot see it, but when her lips flatten in a smug smile, he knows even the slight noise he made has betrayed him. He folds his hands, to what use he doesn’t know, and murmurs: “My greetings to Your Majesty.”

Queen Gandhari dips her head graciously. “And mine in return to the King of Anga.”

For an instant Karna wonders how a _king_ had managed to enter the room unannounced, before he remembers the whirlwind series of events earlier that afternoon. He clears his throat. “Yes, I—Thank you.”

“Anga is a jewel of a country,” she says, ignoring his words as too inane for her notice. “The people placid and profitable. My husband is quite fond of it; only the deepest affection could have induced him to part with it.”

 _To give to an heir_ , Karna supplies _, who promptly gave it away again_. He might have known one of them should be reprimanded for that ill-starred idea. Better him than Duryodhana. 

“I will do my best to guard it well,” he offers, but Gandhari waves this away. 

“You would have done so otherwise,” she says, “as a servant to the crown. I expect you not to disgrace it.”

“Disgrace it?”

“Your life so far cannot have prepared you for what is to come,” says the Queen. “You know only how to wage war--and very well, too, if my sister Kunti is to be trusted, which she almost always is--but I tell you now, O King of Anga, your every day from now onwards will be a battle in more ways than one.”

Karna wants to interrupt, to point out that every day spent squeezing what rights he can from the world as a _suta’_ s son already has been--but he thinks, suddenly, of the Queen making him wait before speaking, of the ease with which she’d rendered him clumsy and uncertain. He thinks: _I have much to learn_.

Gandhari cannot see any of the realization on his face, but nevertheless, she says: “You see I am correct. I trust you’ll redress any deficiencies with your usual zeal, before they may do any harm to the dignity of Anga.”

She speaks as though to a child, not a man full-grown at two-and-twenty. Karna knows his voice is sulky when he replies, but he does not care. First King Pandu’s brats, then Kripacharya, and now the Queen; he is _tired_ of being told he is not good enough. “I thank you for your concern,” he says,“but why take such care for me?”

A hundred-and-one adolescent children must have accustomed Queen Gandhari to sarcasm, for she takes no offense at his tone. Instead, she says sweetly, “I should have thought that was obvious. As I said, Anga is a jewel of a country; only the greatest of affection could induce one to part with it.”

 _Ah,_ thinks Karna, embarrassed and exhilarated all at once. “I thank you,” he says once more, bowing his head to hide his confusion even from the maids, and this time, he is entirely sincere. 

**Author's Note:**

> Vacana= (Sanskrit) advice, instruction, command.  
> Karna's age in relationship to everyone else is eternally confusing, but given at least a year for Kunti to be married, another for Pandu to marry Madri and go on a hunting trip, Karna here is 22 to Yudhisthira's 19 (and Duryodhana's 18). A warning, as ever, for deliberate fudging of maths.


End file.
